Seed planter



' 'J. BLUE SEED PLANTER April 26, 1949.

3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 5, 1947 Qrwe/wtob .c/ohn Blue April 26 1949. J, BLUE 2,468,023

SEED PLANIER Filed Feb. 5, 1947 s Sheets-Sheet 2 3 vwe/rvtom J. BLUE SEED PLANTER April 26, 1949.

s Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Feb. 5, 1947 John Blue WWW 9% Mdn M Patented Apr. 26, 1949 sssn rmm'rsa John Blue, Laurlnburg, N. 0., mignor to John Blue Company, Laurinburg, N. 0., a corporation of North Carolina Application February 5, 1947, Serial No. 726,653-

2 Claims. 222-239) This invention relates to'seed planters and is particularly concerned with planters of the axledriven type which may be used for the planting of cotton seed, corn. peanuts and similar seeds, which require special handling and also any other general type of seed.

A principal object of this invention is to provide a new seed planting mechanism of the indicated type. A further object is the provision of seed planters possessing the following features:

(1) Easy separation of the seed distributor mechanism from the planter mounting and planter hopper.

(2) Readily interchangeable seed distributor parts adapting the planter for use with cotton seeds or similar seeds requiring separation prior to distribution, peanuts or similar seeds which require gentle handling during the distribution. and other seeds which require no special handling in the distributing operation.

(3) Provision for permitting an operatorof the mechanism to view the discharge of seeds from the hopper into a discharge tube during planting.

(4) A seed agitator disk mounted separately from and driven independently of a seedmetering disk. 7

Still further objects will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter.

For an understanding ,of the means by which these objects are accomplished and the construc tion of my seed planter, reference is made to the attached drawings. in which v Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of two of my seed planters mounted for operation upon a tractor, the illustration showing the appearance of this arrangement when viewed from the rear of the tractor.

Figure 2 is a top elevational view of my planter. Figure 3 is a rear elevational view of the planter mounting, hopper bottom and seed metering mechanism, 1. e.. a rear view of the planter with the hopper removed.

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of Figure 2.

4 planter consists of the primary units of a 2 planter base II. a seed metering mechanism l2. a hopper I4, a hopper bottom It, and a discharge tube l8.

. The base ll serves as a means for mountingv the planter upon a suitable carriage when not in use. It will be apparent that my planter may be used singly or in multiples and may be mounted on any suitable carriage whether it be horsedrawn, tractor-drawn, tractor-mounted, or drawn by any other suitablemechanism. The general method of mounting and the appearance of the planter when in use, can be gathered from the diagrammatic illustration of Figure 1 in the drawings. This figure shows two planters mounted upon the forward section of a tractor so as to be driven by chains from sprocket gears connected to the power take-oil of the tractor. Obviously, there exist innumerable ways in which my planter can be satisfactorily mounted on tractors or other carriages and numerous ways for supplying the necessary power to drive them. These difl'erent ways of mounting will be apparent to those who are familiar to the use of planters and Figure 1 is merely included so as to provide a general understanding of the appearance of the planter during operation. This figure shows the seed viewing arrangement of the planter as is more fully discussed hereinafter.

The planter base I! comprises an open rectangle of strip steel or other suitable metal 20 having flanges 22 protruding upward therefrom. On one end of the base is mounted a hinge member-24 provided with a plurality of openings 28 e which receive corresponding hinge members of Figure 5 is a vertical view, partly in section, 7 showing features of the planter not fully apparent from Figure 4.

Figure 6 is an exploded view of the planter mounting, hopper bottom and seed metering Figure 7 isa cover plate for the seed metering,

disk which is used with the planter when the seed agitator disk is not employed. Referring in detail to th drawings, the

the hopper bottom. A shaft 28 is journalled in the flanges 22 and two spur gears an and 32 are fastened, such as by a key or by a pin, to the shaft 28. A sprocket wheel or spur gear 84 is provided for driving the shaft 28; The sprocket 84 is preferably mounted upon the shaft 28 by means of cotter pins or similar easily removable fastening elements so that it may be placed on "like in structure and contains two channels 88 and 88. The inner channel 88 is situated at a.

lower level thanthe channel 88. Two holes 48 and 42 are provided in the channel 88. A hole 44 is provided in the channel 88. Positioned near the center of the bottom i8 is a cylindrical protrusion 48 which serves to journal a shaft exten-v sion from one of the ring gears driving the seed distributormechanism. The hopper bottom It is also provided at one end with two pins 40 and 80, at the same end with two hinge members l2 and I4 and at the opposite side with two upwardly extending flanges l and 50 having small holes II and 02.

The seed metering mechanism I2 comprises a seed metering disk 04, a seed agitator disk 00, a seed metering disk driving gear 00, an agitator disk driving gear and a retainer and spacer plate I2.

The ring gear 00 which drives the seed distributor ring fits into the channel 20. It will be seen that when the ring gear ll is inserted in the channel 30, the teeth of the gear 00 can mesh with the teeth of the spur gear through the opening 42 in the channel 30. This is most apparent in Figure 3. By changing the position of gears 22 and 30 upon the shaft 20, the gear '0 can be made to mesh with the gear 30 through the hole 40 in the channel 80.

The ring gear 10 flts into the indentation is of the bottom It and the shaft 10 which extends from the ring gear 10 passes through the opening 10 in the cylindrical protrusion 40. The spur gear 32 is so positioned upon the shaft 20 that the teeth of the gear 32 mesh with the teeth of the gear I0 when the bottom II is operatively positioned upon the base II.

From a consideration of the drawings and in particular Figure 3, it will be seen that that when the shaft 20 is caused to rotate, such as by means of a driving chain on the sprocket 34, the spur gear 30 will cause the ring gear 60 to rotate in one direction while the ring gear I0 is camed to rotate in an opposite direction by means of the spur gear 22.

The ring gear 60 is provided with a plurality of lugs 80. The seed metering disk 64 is provided with a plurality of flanges 02, each of which, in turn, is provided with openings 84. The position and shape of the openings 84 on the disk 04 are made to correspond with the size, shape and position of the lugs 00, extending from the ring gear 60. The disk 64 fits into the channel 20 of the hopper bottom I 6. As can be seen in Figure 4, the lugs 00 will be associated with the openings 04 of the disk 64 when the gear Y60 and the disk 64 are properly positioned in their respective channels in the base It. The ring gear 00 is held into position in the channel 38 by means of the retaining plate 12 which is fastened to the botfi tom I6, such as by screws and bolts placed through the openings 06 in the retaining plate and the holes 00 in the hopper bottom.

When the ring gear 68 is caused to rotate, as indicated above, the seed metering disk 04 will be also rotated because of its connection with the gear 60 through the lugs 00.

A rectangular portion 90 is provided on the shaft 14 extending from the ring gear 10. This rectangular portion 00 corresponds to a rectangular opening 92 located in the center of the agitator disk 6. In operation, the ring gear I. is positioned within the bottom It, so that the shaft 14 extends through the opening II. with the ring gear 00 and seed metering disk 04 positioned in their respective channels in the hopper bottom, as described above, the seed agitator disk 60 is placed over the whole assembly with the extension Ql protruding into the opening 02 of the disk 00. The gear 10 and disk 00 are held in position by means of -a bolt 04, washers l0 and II. and wing nut I00, the bolt 04 extending through an opening provided therefor in the center of the shaft 14 of the gear 10.

The appearance of this assembly of parts is most clearly illustrated in Figure 3. As has been indicated, the gear 10 will be caused to rotate in a direction opposite to the gear during operation of the planter. Since the seed metering disk is driven by the gear 00 and the agitator disk 40 is driven by the gear ll through the shaft 14, the disk 04 and disk 00 will be caused to rotate in opposite directions. The action of the agitator disk It is supplemented with an L-shaped rod I02, located near the outside edge of the disk. The disk It and the agitator I02 function to separate seeds, such as cotton seed, and to insure a continuous supply of the seed to the seed metering disk 04 when the planter is in use.

The hole 44 in the channel 80 of the base It serves to connect the inside of the hopper I4 with the seed discharge tube I I. As will be seen in Figure 3, when the seed metering disk 04 is properly positioned in its channel in the base It, the uppermost position of the disk- 04 corresponds in position to the hole 44.

An opening I04 is provided in the back-side of the hopper I4. At the bottom of the opening i=4, there is located an inwardly extending flange I 0.

As can be seen from Figures 4 and 5, the bottom I. is made in such shape that the back portion of the bottom is located at considerable distance up the side of the hopper I4 when the bottom and the hopper are in proper position. Lugs I00 are provided on the base of bottom It. In use, these lugs rest upon the flanges 22 and help to hold the bottom It in proper position. The parts of the planter are also so positioned that the seed metering mechanism I2- is pitched forward at an appreciable angle when the parts of the planter are in operating position.

The disk 64, the hole 44, the opening I04 and the top of the seed discharge tube It are so positioned one to another in the planter that the portion of the disk 64 located at the hole 44 is intermediate between the uppermost extension of the opening I04 and the topmost part I I0 of the seed discharge tube I8. This arrangement oi elements provides a viewing opening or window for the planter through which seeds, which are discharged from the disk 64 into the discharge tube I0, may be viewed from behind, by a person using the planter, such as a person seated upon a tractor with the planter mounted in front of him. This feature of my planter is most apparent in Figure 1 of the drawings, where the disk 64 can be seen through the opening I04 above the top edge of the discharge tube I0.

An important feature of my planter is the ease with which it may be disassembled for cleaning or repair. The remainder of the planter can readily be removed from the base II by simply rotating the hopper and connected parts from the base about hinge elements 52 and 54, so as to ditch-- gage the gears 30 and 32 from the gears 68 and I0 and then lifting this portion of the planter free of the base. This leaves the base I I as illustrated at the bottom of Figure 6 of the drawing.

The hopper I4 of the planter and the discharge tube I0 which is permanently connected to the hopper, such as by welding or rivets, can be easily disconnected from thebottom It. This is accomplished by removing the fastening elements, such as screws, pins or the like, inserted through the holes 00 in the lugs l0 and corresponding holes in the hopper. The bottom l0 and seed metering mechanism I! are then lifted up and out of the hopper, at the same time disengaging the hopper from the pins 48 and 50 which extend through corresponding holes in the hopper.

All of the parts of the seed metering mechanism may likewise be readily disassembled. In order to'remove the agitator disk 66, it is only necessary to remove the wing nut I00 and washer 90 and 90 from the bolt 94 and then lift the disk 60 away from the assembly. This leaves free the disk 64 which may be lifted from engagement with the v lugs 80 of the gear 08. The gear 60 is, in turn, re-

moved by removing the bolts which hold the retaining plate 12 onto the bottom I6. With the base ll separated from the bottom I6, the gear "may be removed when the nut I00 is removed from the bolt 94.

In order to change overthe planter from operation of planting material, such as cotton seed, so as to use it for the planting material, such as peanuts, it is necessary to remove the agitator disk 80 in the manner indicated above, and replace the disk 00 with a cover plate H2, such as that shown in Figure 7.

The general operation of my planter may be more fullyv understood by the following description of its operation for the planting of cotton seeds. With the planter properly mounted, as illustrated in Figure 1, the hopper I4 is filled with seeds. With the tractor running along the rows, the metering disk 64 will be rotated in one direction and the agitator disk 66 in the opposite direction, as has been described above. The rotation of the disk 66. and the agitator I02 cause the cotton seed to disperse and to fill up the teethlike portions of the seed metering disk 64. As the disk 64 rotates, seeds will come successively into position at the hole 44. When the seeds reach this point, they will drop and be deflected by the flange I06 into the seed discharge tube l8. As they come into the opening and are sodischarged, they can be viewed by the operator from behind, as has been indicated above.

During use in the field, the operation of the planter can be instantly stopped, even though the movement of the carriage is continued, by lifting the remainder of the planter sufliciently from the base ll, so as to disengage the gears 08 and 10,

from the gears 30 and 32. A hook I I4 is provided at the top on the front of the hopper so that a chain or-similar connection may be attached thereto. By pulling on the chain attached to the other of said spur gears.

the metering disk, said agitator disk being rotated opposite to the metering disk, through a ring gear held by a shaft extending from this ring gear on the underside of said bottom engaged with the 2. A seed planter comprising a base having upwardly extending flanges, a shaft ioumalled in said flanges, two spur gears on said shaft, a hopper, a hopper bottom, two inclined channels in said bottom, a ring gear rotatably carried in the lowest ofsaid channels, said ring gear directly engaging one of said spur gears through a hole in the channel in which it is carried, a seed metering disk carried'in the other channel and rotated by said ring gear, an agitator disk positioned over the metering disk, said agitator disk being rotated opposite to the metering disk through a ring gear carried on the underside of said bottom engaging the other of said spur gears held by a shaft extending from the ring gear, a discharge tube positioned on the side of the hopper,. and an opening in the side of the hopper, the relative positions of said metering disk, hopper, opening, hole, and tube, one to another, bein such that a seed discharged from said disk through said hole and opening into said tube may be observed to enter the tube from behind the planter during operation.

JOHN BLUE.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 131,253 Culley Sept. 10, 1872 200,490 Underhill Feb. 19, 1878 261,418 Ayers July 18, 1882 381,408 Follmer Apr. 19, 1887 376,534 Lynch Jan. 17, 1888 A 1,487,919 Cole Mar. 25, 1924 1,613,831 Huntington etal. Jan. 11, 1927 Kriegbaum et a1; Oct. 15, 1935 

